Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Free Apps for Kids: Duck Duck Moose

I recently received an email from Khan Academy, an online educational support site for kids, stating they've partnered with Duck Duck Moose to provide educational kids apps free.

I've downloaded five Duck Duck Moose apps and they have all received a thumbs up from my kids. The apps are intended for ages 8 and under, but some of them are so fun my 10 & 13 year old ask to play!

Duck Duck Moose has over 20 apps to download. Simply go the app store for your device and search for "duck duck moose," click to download and start playing right away. All the apps are free, with no advertising, or in-app purchases.

My kid's top Duck Duck Moose favorites are:

ChatterPix- take a picture of a person or object, draw a mouth, add optional decorations, and record your voice to make the person or object talk. Here is a ChatterPix my kids made.

Build-a-Truck- kids experiment with building a truck using a variety of customized parts. They test the design on one of three tracks to see which design performs better. My kids and I have made a lot of dud trucks, some of which were too heavy, and some with not a big enough engine, and we are still trying to build the perfect truck that will work on all terrains.

Musical Me!- this app offers several musical games, but my kids' favorite is the "Notes" game which allows the movement of musical notes on a treble clef staff to change a song, they also like the "Memory" game which is very much like old time Simon game, but with music notes.

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We can only keep our kids isolated from technology and media for so long, the least we parents can do is control the types of media our kids are exposed to and make sure it's educational. Duck Duck Moose apps are one way to go, and the price of free can't be beat.